Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – RUSH PLAY BUFFALO – The Rush will attempt to put an end to NLL supremacy that the Buffalo Bandits have enjoyed for the last two years as they go for a threepeat. The Bandits host game one next Friday and then game two is in Saskatoon on Sunday. Game three, if necessary, goes back in Buffalo the following Saturday. The nosedive in fan interest for the Rush is puzzling to me.  The NLL has become my favorite professional sports league to follow and watching lacrosse I feel like a kid again. I get excited cheering for the team and if you enjoy sports there is nothing better than a heart stopping comeback. This wasn’t the first time this season I’ve been to a Rush game where they poured it on late to finish off an opponent.  I would estimate 10% of the crowd left after Hoggarth’s 9-7 goal and that’s too bad. They missed a heckuva finish.

3 – COLLAROS SUSPENSION – We are getting closer to the start of the CFL regular season and already we have a puzzling suspension whereby Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros has been given a one game banishment (instead of the mandatory two) for failing to respond to a request for a drug test. Everyone speaks glowingly of Collaros and the governing body itself says they need more enhanced contact protocols. So, if it’s not his fault that Collaros doesn’t check his cell phone for over a day, why is he suspended at all? Apparently, there were four attempts to reach Collaros (2 phone calls, 1 text, 1 email) but he missed or ignored all four. I guess I’m curious as to how the CCES can improve their contacting methods as that seem to be fairly thorough already to me. I’d also say Collaros missing all four attempts simply because he never checks his phone is BS.

4 – MacDOUGALL WINNING AGAIN – There are coaching vacancies all over the place in the NHL and none of them appear to be looking at Moncton Wildcats Head Coach Gardiner MacDougall, who simply wins everywhere he goes. The latest stop for MacDougall has him in the QMJHL final as the Wildcats have breezed through three rounds, going a combined 12-and-1 following a regular season of 53–9-and-2. Maybe he has no NHL aspirations and feels as though working with non-professionals is his sweet spot but if I was running an NHL team, MacDougall would be my first call and if he was receptive, it would be my only call.

5 – BEDARD WORLDS NO THANKS – The World Hockey Championship takes place May 9-25 in Sweden and Denmark.  Canada, typically, builds its roster at the last minute with players on teams who fail to make the playoffs or lose in the first round. While Connor Bedard did go last year, he has declined the invitation this year. I would say in a year where Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, and the recently retired Marc-Andre Fleury all agree to participate; it’s probably not the smartest idea or best look to turn down the opportunity. Bedard’s brief NHL career has not gone according to plan, to say the least. Once (and maybe still) viewed as a generational talent, Bedard may not even be the best player in his draft class as both Matvei Michkov and Will Smith could make a case for surpassing him and Adam Fantilli has only two less goals than Bedard in 19 fewer games. The Blackhawks are also nowhere near emerging from being one of the league’s larger grease fires. I think he should have played.  Fantilli, for what it’s worth, is playing.  

6 – DRURY/INGRAM/RENAS – A few times this year, teams in the SJHL dealt with some player exodus to the BCHL without getting any compensation because of the BCHL’s break from Hockey Canada. With the NCAA relaxing rules on major junior players being eligible to play, that ended up hurting the BCHL and so when they lost players to major junior, the BC teams started to raid the AJHL, SJHL, and MJHL for players. It affected the two teams where I live significantly as Melville’s Caden Drury went to Brooks in early December and left as the SJHL’s scoring leader.  In late January, Yorkton’s forward depth was decimated when Keenan Ingram went to Langley and Dustin Renas to Chilliwack. In the case of Ingram, he played very well and scored 11 goals in 17 games but the Rivermen missed the playoffs so his season ended early. Renas has also played, relatively, well although he has just 8-points in 14-playoff games. To his credit, he’s on a team making a deep run and contributing although not as much as he was in Yorkton.  Drury has been limited to 7 out of his team’s 12-playoff games and has just 1 goal to show for it.  As I watched the first round series between the Mils and Terriers, there was no doubt the absence of Drury had an impact on Melville, who lost the series because they couldn’t score.  Subsequently, the next round saw the Terriers get totally overmatched by Melfort but I can’t help but think with Renas and Ingram in the lineup the result may have been different. After all, the Terriers had three losses as a result of using an unregistered player and they also scuffled a bit after losing Renas and Ingram but there was a period of time throughout the year where they were recognized as a top team in the country.  It all makes me wonder if Renas and Ingram had stayed, would the Terriers be the ones on the way to Calgary this week and if Drury had stayed, would he have won a scoring title and secured a scholarship.  We will never know.

7 – DEVERS POUTING – The Boston Red Sox have some drama in their clubhouse as Rafael Devers has come out, publicly, to say he will not play first base to help the team out in light of Triston Casas’ season ending knee injury.  Devers was moved off third base in the preseason due to the acquisition of Alex Bregman and he’s been the full-time DH ever since.  Devers says he’s not some player who they can just throw into any position when they are short and his focus is on being the designated hitter. It’s worth noting he makes over $30-million a season and while the Red Sox may not have communicated the best with their star player, the simple fact is that Devers is hurting his teammates the most by being a spoiled brat. Get your ass to first base. 

8 – ATLANTA NHL EXPANSION – There are not enough teams in the NHL, so Gary Bettman is looking at expanding the league into Atlanta to give that city a third chance at supporting a team. Many here in Canada will roll their eyes seeing as how Atlanta is a proven failure as an NHL market but it’s also the seventh largest market in the United States and metro Atlanta has almost 6.5-million people. Compare that to less than 1-million in Quebec City and surrounding area and barely 500-thousand in Hamilton and surrounding area and you can, quickly, see why the league wants to be back in Atlanta. Actual bums in the seats don’t matter either.  If Atlanta draws 10-to-12 thousand a game everyone will be happy. As far as the NHL in Canada is concerned, teams will be leaving before any more are added. The dollar compared to the American one is a major hurdle and the political climate in Canada is another stumbling block in that the economy isn’t thriving and Canadians don’t seem to care as they just re-upped on four more years of pain.  That’s, surely, a message the NHL and any other company would interpret as ‘closed for business’.  Fans booing the American anthem (I’m talking to you Winnipeg) isn’t overly endearing for players either and potential government restrictions on movement through banning gas powered vehicles will also drive players away from Canadian clubs.  

9 – LONDON SEX ASSAULT – I’ve been following the court case involving the former NHLers charged with sexual assault in connection to an incident that occured in London, Ontario in 2018. I’ve made a couple of comments on X and I’m quite surprised at the kickback I’ve received from people who aren’t willing to give the woman the benefit of the doubt. Females who have entrapped professional athletes have really done a lot of damage towards the credibility of any woman who considers coming forward following a non-consensual sexual encounter.  It’s impossible to pass judgment from reading a few news stories but here’s what I would say based on the information that has come out: there is no evidence the woman invited more participants so if she consented, did she maybe do so under duress or pressure? Her name is also never used by the players in their group chat so that indicates a fair amount of disrespect, at minimum, right there. But, my most convincing aspect so far has been the testimony of Taylor Raddysh, who says he was in the room for only a few minutes but has no idea or recollection as to what may have been going on in there. He just remembers telling Boris Katchouk that the two of them should leave. In fact, Katchouk said Raddysh told him ‘…let’s get out of here’. That tells me that while Raddysh isn’t going to tattle on his buds, he was smart enough to recognize something was going on that he wanted no part of and I would also suggest based on his testimony that morals weren’t the reason he bolted.

10 – MISSISSAUGA CASE – It’s not as widely reported, but TSN’s Rick Westhead has also uncovered a sex assault situation where it appears to be ‘gang’ in nature and the players involved were all members of the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads in 2014-15. A quick look at the roster and I see Michael McLeod was a 16-year-old rookie on that club. No names have been released in the Mississauga situation but there are a couple of striking similarities in this accusation as there are in the London one.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)